With little fanfare, Nevada passed new rules that make administration of small estates much easier. Let’s dive into what it means for you. A small estate is one where the value of the assets falls below a certain dollar amount, generally ranging somewhere between $50,000 and $150,000. Each state has its own rules about how much an estate can be worth and still qualify as a small estate.
From now on, anyone seeking to become the legal representative of a small estate can use a simplified "Affidavit of Entitlement" form to petition the court for a non-supervised estate administration. Keep reading to learn more about how the process works.
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New rules that make the probate process easier for small estates
Here’s how the new procedure works. If you are the spouse of a deceased individual whose estate is valued at less than $100,000 and does not include real property (house or land), then you can fill out the Affidavit of Entitlement rather than a traditional Petition for Probate.
You can also use the affidavit if you’re a non-spousal heir of an estate valued at less than $25,000, with no real property.
Once the court grants the authority to serve as legal representative (based on the Affidavit), you do not have to do the additional reporting that would normally be required during the administration of an estate.
If the deceased’s estate includes personal property but is still valued at less than $100,000, you may be able to use Nevada’s “set aside” law for simplified estate administration. To do so, you would fill out a Petition to Prove Will and Set Aside Without Administration (if there is a will) or a Petition to Set Aside Without Administration (if there is no will).
Under these procedures, the courts can “set aside” the debts of an estate and give preference to spouses and minor children when distributing assets — as opposed to the traditional probate process where debts of the estate are distributed before any assets are distributed to heirs.
For all other estates, a more formal probate process with court supervision is required.
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